Turkey’s Sharia-supremacist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has responded pointedly to President Trump’s threat on Friday of “large sanctions” against the Turkish regime if an American taken hostage nearly two years ago, Pastor Andrew Bronson, were not promptly allowed to come home.

Erdogan declared, “We will not take a step back when faced with sanctions. [The Americans] should not forget that they will lose a sincere partner.”

Actually, we lost a “sincere partner” many years ago. It started when Erdogan began fundamentally transforming his country from a modern and secular, albeit Muslim state, aligned with the West policies into a repressive, Islamist and even jihadist one allied with our enemies.

Sanctions are definitely in order – and not simply because of Erdogan’s mistreatment of Pastor Brunson and countless other, less prominent Christians. But because, under his misrule, Turkey is an ally no more.